A parabolic free boundary problem with double pinning

We study the Cauchy problem for the equation ∂_tu_ε−Δu_ε=−β_ε(u_ε) in (0,∞)×Rⁿ as $\text{ε→0}$, where the nonlinearity β_ε is assumed to converge to a measure concentrated at $\text{0}$. In this paper we allow for sign changes of β_ε and u_ε. The solutions are uniformly Lipschitz continuous in space and Hölder continuous in time. We show that each limit of u_ε is a solution of the free boundary problem ∂_tu−Δu=0 in {u>0}∩(0,∞)×Rⁿ,|∇u⁺|²−|∇u⁻|²=g on (∂{u>0}∪∂{u<0})∩((0,∞)×Rⁿ) in the sense of domain variations. Depending on the structure of the nonlinearity $\text{β}{}_{\mathrm{\epsilon }}\text{,}$ the function g in the condition on the free boundary need not be a constant.